notes from the life of a CSA member

CSA freezer inventory

Today I went through my freezer to make a list of what we had. Turns out we’ve got a lot. I want to get through it over the next few months. I think that will mean a lot of vegetable soup and fruit muffins. Not a horrible fate, I suppose.

Here’s what we have that came from the CSA over the past year…

8

oz

eggplant parmesan

2

lb

mushroom pasta

4

qts

vegetable soup

8

oz

mystery pasta

24

oz

apples for baking

6

oz

peaches

24

oz

apples for baking

5

oz

blueberries

25

oz

breaded okra

10

oz

green beans

6

oz

stir-fried zucchini

12

oz

pesto

13

oz

green beans

3

oz

blanched arugula

13

oz

green beans

14

oz

green beans

12

oz

spaghetti squash

4

oz

green beans

2

oz

blanched greens

2

lb

apple butter

4

lb

sweet potatoes

The first few things are prepared frozen things. We’ve already eaten 1 lb of mushroom pasta for a quick supper. It was just fine. I’m also defrosting 2 quarts of the soup. Before we make more soup, I guess we need to eat up what’s there.

Pesto pasta whenever possible. Pesto goes further on pasta than you think. If you put it on hot pasta, the oil in the pesto coats the pasta really well. I hope to get three meals for two or three out of this pesto.

The breaded okra is for frying. I’ve read that you can fry it frozen. When it gets closer to that time, I’ll do some more research.

Hopefully the stir-fried zucchini will reheat nicely. I’ll defrost it in the microwave and then heat it in a pan. This is sort of a test run. It’s our favorite summer squash dish, and if it reheats well, I’ll freeze more this coming season.

The spaghetti squash will probably end up in something like zucchini bread.

The blanched greens will be defrosted for spinach dip or an alfredo pasta dish.

4 sweet potato pies!

So that leaves the green beans. Some of these guys will end up in vegetable soup. (In addition to these green beans, I have a bunch of store bought frozen vegetables I want to use up.) Some of the beans I’ll cook to death southern-style for my husband. I like green beans sautéed lightly but I’m not sure how well frozen beans will do with that. So I may try it and then repurpose them for soup if they don’t turn out so well.

The green beans and greens are blanched. The sweet potatoes and spaghetti squash are baked and scooped out of their skins. I also blanched and froze some cauliflower earlier this season. Only the to-be-fried okra is raw, and it’s chopped and breaded.